While trying to help deal with boxes and boxes after the second sewer deluge in my basement condo, I flipped through a book I had never really read: Thesaurus of Alternatives to Worn-Out Words and Phrases by Robert Hartwell Fiske, and I almost cried. There, in cold black and white, was a detailed criticism of what appears to be my writing style. I mean, golly ding!

For instance, “mad as a hatter” was labeled “an insipid similie,”; “make a conscious choice” is a “dimwitted redundancy,” and “close encounter” is an “infantile phrase.”

“What’s done is done” is a “quack equation,” and “Quack equations are much favored by montebanks and pretenders, by businesspeople and politicians.” Now that’s going a little far!

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GRASS: A poem

This poem’s supposed to be about grass, alas, and I don’t know what to say, but remember that I tried.

Green grass has earth worms in its hair. Under the sod, I’ve seen them there.

Salt kills grass and so does pee. I eat salt and it doesn’t kill me!

How does grass live after losing its head? If I lost mine wouldn’t I be dead?

Maybe it’s feet that the mower cuts off while the grass lives its life upside down.

Yes! Its hair is under the ground, so it must grow with its feet in the air.

So that’s why the lawn doesn’t move away… They cut off its feet so it has to stay.

But where do I grow, when taller I get? Does my stomach stretch or does my neck?

Dunno that, either.

(I know, I know–I’m not all the way back, either)..

Nan

I didn’t die, if anyone wondered. Don’t worry; My obituary has already been written for when the time comes. My daughter has convinced me to throw a 90th birthday party in mid-September. I do regret the approaching folding of the printed version of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, however (home of my year-long radio column in the Journal).

UNSOLVED MYSTERY

The current mystery remains: Why did I get flushed out of my basement condo by two consecutive sewerage floods? Still living at bay and no restorative work proceeding for the second flooding. Getting to know my community better, however. Will post photo next time my helper appears.

She’s here!

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So It Begins!

Trade has been Mr. Trump’s favorite playground for his version of industrial policy, with tariffs being a weapon of choice. He has compared the United States to a “giant department store,” with him as the manager. “I own the store, and I set the prices, and I’ll say, ‘If you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay,’” he told Time magazine in April. (Newsweek)

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CORRECTION: The new black cat color is not blacker, but turns itself whiter by itself. Apologies…

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Happy Birthday to me September the 15th, 90 years….

Thoughts About:

My first poem:

Ireland was once a terrible place;

No happy hearts, no fancy face.

Then the good St. Pat showed them

the cruelty of all of their ways

and in a shamrock’s leafy tree

showed them the holy trinity.

And oft after that people

would say “Ireland, a place

where hearts are gay.”

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My Second Poem several years later:

THREE SOULS

Three souls looked up at the table

an ant, a man and a dog.

The heavens crashed,

lightening flashed and

Fate chuckled with glee;

The ant had bread, the man was dead,

and the dog had changed his master.

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“Intelligent Design” by a 2010 Athens Ohio Library Poetry Group Member and O.U. professor emeritus Milton Ploghoft:

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

The earth designed as a home for man

Missed the mark of a friendly plan.

With deserts barren and burning hot

And frigid mountains productive not.

The weather too is a shaky gift,

With hurricanes and blizzards

Leaving mighty man adrift

To the whimsy of saints or maybe of wizards.

The design of man is iffy as well,

With eating and breathing inside the same face.

When problem occurs at the slightest smell,

While pleasure and plumbing share the same space.

Was man created ready to go

Or left to invent clothing and shack

To keep God’s elements off of his back

While learning to gather and hunt for her tack.

An orderly design from a Creator on high,

Or chaotic God beneath a blue sky?

Were the challenges smaller for lower life forms

Than man given less than bugs birds and sky?

MP 2010

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Photo choice by Nan:

Uri and Teddy are vacationing in Atlanta with friends, Anakin and Sadie, while I remain evicted.

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STATE OF THE WORLD

If we lay out human experience what do we see?

A percentage warm, snuggly, well-fed and free.

And the other–many others–less lucky than we.

Why have we been blessed and not the others?

We are no more deserving than our other brothers.

Yet I still hide with you under the covers.

Nan

(Human) Nature

www.popularmechanics.com › science › a65625078A New Cat Color Is Defying Genetic Expectations. What does it mean?

According to The Washington Post, which tracked our current president’s lack of) truthfulness during his first term, he lied an average of 21 times a day for four years, totalling 30,573 false or misleading claims. Respected historian David Brinkley called him a “serial liar.” (Thanks to dianeravitch’s blog)

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OOPS! Musk Forgot – Musk, last year the richest man in the U.S. (or even more, maybe), who as The Week of May 2, 2025 writes, has taken on the mission of “helping seed the earth with more human beings of high intelligence.” Elizabeth Bruenig in the Atlantic reminds us that Musk is driven by the conviction that “intelligent people in particular ought to be breeding more” to compete with their genetic inferiors. Mahdawi of The Guardian writes that Musk believes women are nothing more than walking wombs.” OOPS! Musk made a logic mistake? Remember, women are often intelligent, win prizes in research, etc. To remove them from the intelligent clique would be…well, unintelligent. ALSO, in his theorizing Musk includes our president among those with high intelligence….?